Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pakeman, Thomas
PAKEMAN, THOMAS (1614?–1691), dissenting divine, was born in 1613 or 1614, and proceeded in 1629 to Clare College, Cambridge, whence he graduated B.A. in 1633, M.A. 1637. He was then employed for some years as a corrector in the king's print-house. About 1638 a petition was presented by him and three other correctors, all masters of arts, complaining that, ‘notwithstanding the work is greater than ever, the number of correctors has been curtailed, and 80l. per annum taken off their pay by the farmers of the customs.’ Archbishop Laud noted on the petition that the petitioners are to be continued in their pay and places until such time as he has time to hear them himself (Cal. State Papers, 1634–5, p. 407).
Subsequently Pakeman joined the nonconformist ministry. On 28 Jan. 1643 he ‘began to be minister’ at Little Hadham, Hertfordshire (Parish Register). He signed a petition from ministers in Hertfordshire, presented to the lords on 24 July 1646, praying for church government according to the covenant (Lords' Journals, viii. 445; cf. Addit. MS. 15670, ff. 288, 361, 442).
Before September 1648 Pakeman was officiating as minister at Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex. He was ejected by the Act of Uniformity, 1662. He then commenced to take pupils, and, owing to his excellent discipline, ‘he had,’ Calamy says, ‘the instruction and boarding of several children of persons of quality and figure.’ Both here and at Old Brentford, whither he shortly removed, he continued to preach and to administer the sacrament. He was assisted in his classes by Ralph Button [q. v.], who lived next door. On the passing of the Five Mile Act Button was imprisoned; but Pakeman, by leaving Brentford, escaped. For a time he lived and preached constantly at Mrs. Methwold's, ‘in Brompton, near Knightsbridge,’ and thence he was received into the family of Erasmus Smith, where, Calamy says, he continued some years.
In 1685 he settled with his children in the city, and attended the ministry of Richard Kidder [q. v.] at the church of St. Martin Outwich, where he sometimes received the sacrament. He also preached at the house of his son Thomas, who matriculated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, 18 Oct. 1662, aged 17 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. early series, p. 1107). On one occasion, when not more than three or four neighbours were present, the city marshal seized both Pakeman and his son, and carried them before Sir Henry Tulse, the lord mayor (1684–5), who fined them. Pakeman removed to Stratford in 1687, where he continued his ministrations. He held that ‘all adult persons who came to hear ought to receive the sacrament.’ At Stratford he employed a schoolmaster at his own expense to teach the poor children to read. Pakeman, who died in June 1691, is called by Baxter ‘a grave, sound, pious, sober, and peaceable divine’ (Reliquiæ, iii. 97).
Besides Thomas, above mentioned, and Elizabeth, born in 1646, married at Bushey 22 Sept. 1663 to Shadrach Brise of Kingston-on-Thames (Chester, Marriage Licenses, p. 186), Pakeman had seven children born and baptised at Harrow before 1659.
[Calamy and Palmer, ii. 457; Kennett's Reg. pp. 830, 905; Calamy's Account of the Ejected Ministers, 1713, p. 468; Calamy's Abridgment, 1702, p. 279; Urwick's Nonconformity in Hertfordshire, pp. 751, 752; Registers of Harrow, per the Rev. F. H. Joyce, and of Little Hadham, per the Rev. James M. Bury; Register of Cambridge University, per J. W. Clark; those of Much Hadham and of Clare College have also been searched by Dr. Stanley Leathes and Dr. Atkinson.]